


Introduction II - Haibara Ai

by astorii



Series: You See, But Do Not Observe [5]
Category: Magic Kaito, 名探偵コナン | Detective Conan | Case Closed
Genre: AU, Canonical Character Death, CoAi Friendship, Fatherly!Tōichi, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-21
Updated: 2019-05-11
Packaged: 2019-06-13 21:15:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15373464
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/astorii/pseuds/astorii
Summary: Conan hates looking at Haibara.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Nope. Don’t own DCMK.

They shoot her once. Then twice.

As soon as they’re gone, Conan rushes to her side, monitoring her condition. His heart pounds in his ears and adrenaline sings in his veins, conducting a symphony only he can hear, despite how loud it might feel. He watches her labored breathing and the way she stares at the ceiling with eyes that become more glasslike with each passing second. He holds her head in his lap, urging her to stay with him before making a hopeless attempt at stopping the blood.

His fingers become wet and his palms sticky. She tells him to stop and that it’s too late for her. Even though he doesn’t want to believe it, he drops his hands.

“Who are you?” she asks, meeting his eyes with her own. She touches his cheek, caressing it with a gentleness he’s only felt from his mother and Ran on the occasion whenever she sees Shinichi in him. He manages to smirk, just for her.

“... Kudō Shinichi,” he murmurs, holding her a bit tighter. “Detective.”

“That boy,” she muses, smiling softly in a way that makes it seem as though the simple notion is a burden on her lips. “You must stop us,” she says. With the last of her strength, she holds a key, bringing it closer to him, leaving it in his hands. Her next few words are of an Organization wearing the color of crows. Conan stills. In his arms, she takes her last dying breath, taking with her some of the secrets and answers he’s been seeking.

Conan watches as the life fades from her eyes that slip shut, as she breathes her last breath before succumbing to her fate. He pulls her a bit closer, mindful of the blood, childishly wondering if he could pull her from death and back to the mortal plane. The attempt is fruitless as she falls limp in his arms. He squeezes his eyes painfully shut, not even thinking for a moment that Gin and Vodka could come back or set the place on fire in order to cover their tracks. He doesn’t hear Tōichi telling him that he needs to call the authorities. He can’t feel the hand ghosting on his shoulder, miming a squeeze of reassurance. He hopes that death is comforting for her and that she doesn’t linger to watch him grieve for her.

Today he learns for the first time that even an insider of the Organization is still locked out. Today he reminds himself that he’s too small to stop death.

He releases her, resting her head in his lap. Conan reaches into his pocket with bloody fingers. In his hand, the key has been exchanged for his phone.

“Hello,” he says, cradling his phone. Withholding a shuddering breath, he continues. “Criminal Investigations, Inspector Megure, please.”

Once he’s on the line with the good inspector, he skips the preamble, disclosing his location and telling the man that his services are needed. Then, he hangs up. Conan pockets his phone, brushing a few strands of hair from the woman’s face. When he looks up, he swears for a moment that he saw her smiling at him before she’s gone in an instant. Tōichi kneels beside him, giving him a sad smile. The man tells him that he tried his best.

“My best isn’t good enough,” he replies, sounding aggravated. “In this body I’m too small.”

“But you’re big enough to make a difference,” Tōichi whispers. Conan falls silent, mulling over those words and telling himself to agree. Still, he can’t help but remember how much easier it was being Shinichi and how difficult it is being him.

The whispers in his mind are those of demons. He sits alone with a dead body in his lap and a dead man somewhere nearby. Conan doesn’t realize the police have arrived until someone shakes his shoulders to gain his attention. He barely registers someone prying him away from the body and doesn’t feel the weighted blanket falling on his shoulders. Someone’s touching his hands, wiping the blood from them. In his mind, he can hear his own voice among those of the demons, telling himself that he should pull himself together.

Conan pulls out the key he’s been entrusted with, saying that the lady had given it to him. Someone asks if he saw what happened. He hesitates. Then lies. No, he hadn’t seen what happened. No, he didn’t follow her. Yes, he was just lucky. Yes, he tried to stop the bleeding. Obviously, it didn’t work.

Mouri and Ran arrive minutes later in a cheap rental. Conan’s sitting on the back of an ambulance with a cup of hot chocolate in his hands that one of the paramedics gave him. Ran rushes over, being mindful of the warm drink as she embraces him. Mouri watches from a distance, asking Megure for the details. Conan can’t help but stare at his hands, still seeing blood that isn’t there anymore.

“I want to go home,” he says, sounding childish even for him. “I want to wash my hands.”

He wants to wash his hands in water so hot that it steams. He wants to wash his hands with soap so hard that they turn red. He wants to wash his hands until the red disappears.

Normally, he isn’t so shaken up. Conan knows Death and he knows it well. Watching her die hadn’t been his first time watching someone’s life getting stolen away. He usually isn’t so unresponsive to the world, but there was something about her death that strikes a chord in him. It feels like something’s wrapping around his throat, squeezing. Even though something bad has happened, he can’t help but feel like this isn’t over.

He expects something to happen. Whether it’s tomorrow or next week, he doesn’t know. It doesn’t matter.

Soon, he meets a girl called Haibara Ai. He can’t stand to look at her. When he looks at her, he sees the woman.


	2. Chapter 2

What is this feeling?  
  
Unable to stop himself, he grasps at the fabric covering his chest, his hand shaking and positioned where his heart is. His eyes are wide and his mouth is agape as he hunches over in his seat, clear signs of his poker face crumbling around him and falling to bits and pieces.  
  
The feeling isn’t suffocating; it’s not a snake of dread coiling up and ready to spring to life. No, he feels anxious and on edge. He needs fresh air. And speaking of, there is something in the air that he cannot place—some sort of shift that he cannot explain.  
  
Quickly, he bites his bottom lip and shuts his eyes, focusing on his breathing before anyone can notice his confusing countenance.  
  
His ears pick up on the familiar sound of the classroom door sliding open. The feeling increased tenfold, prompting a swarm of confusion in his mind that buzzes like a hive. Conan dares to peek. And that’s when he sees it—sees _her_.  
  
It’s that woman—Hiroda Masami. From the One Billion Yen Robbery Case! And she’s standing behind a young girl with plain clothes and a piercing gaze. But why?  
  
Chills wrack his body and bile rises in the back of his throat that he forces back down. He’s quick to drop his gaze. This whole thing feels like some sort of sick joke. Hiroda Masami is dead and she died in his arms. Conan stares at his hands. Maybe it’s just him, but they’re starting to look red...  
  
The phantom cold. The scritch scratch of chalk on the whiteboard as Kobayashi writes the characters of the new girl’s name. The slow, smooth voice sounding out that new name. The thundering of his heart in his chest.  
  
He doesn’t realize that he’s stopped breathing until a startled gasp escapes him when this Haibara Ai drops her bag on the desk right next to him.  
  
“Nice to meet you,” she says, pulling out her notebooks and pens as she slips into the once-empty seat.  
  
“... You too.”  
  
Class begins as per usual: Kobayashi asks for everyone to settle down and place their homework out so she may check that it’s completed and then thanking everyone for the time they spent.  
  
Conan debates feigning a headache or an upset stomach—anything he can do to leave. Eventually, he loses himself in his thoughts, working on autopilot. Later, he’d thank any and all deities that he had already gone through these lessons. It’s only luck that neither teacher nor students notice his stupor; although, he can’t say Haibara Ai doesn’t notice.  
  
As soon as the signal came for students to begin to prepare their meals, Conan wanders over to Kobayashi’s desk, faking an under-the-weather sort of look as he purposefully stumbles. There’s a quiver in his lips and a slight furrowing of the brows as he locks eyes with her. She looks at him, looking concerned.  
  
After telling her that he’d like to go use the toilet as he feels unwell, she doesn’t miss a beat and gives him permission. Just as he slides the door open, she’s quick to call after him, instructing him to head to the nurse’s station if he feels any worse. Conan doesn’t stop his act until he’s certain she isn’t watching anymore.  
  
As he nears the bathroom, he pinches the bridge of his nose as a migraine begins to form and he looks wearily at Tōichi. It’s not long after that the bathrooms come into view and he quickly slips into the boy’s room and throws himself at one of the sinks.  
  
He has a vice grip on either side of the sink, arms shaking as he stares himself down in the mirror. Conan stays like that for a few seconds more before turning the tap on and letting his hands stay under the steady stream of water, which seems to grow hotter and hotter until it burns.  
  
“You saw her too,” he says, his voice quiet. “You saw her too. I know you did.”  
  
“Her name is Miyano Akemi, Shinichi-kun.”  
  
“What?” Conan looks at him, barely registering the pain of the steaming water as he looks at Tōichi in befuddlement. “But she—”  
  
The magician interrupts him by saying that he had spoken with her while he was busy tuning out the real world. Apparently, her name is Miyano Akemi and she had been a member of the Black Organization as he calls it. She had done what she did for her sister’s sake, a certain Miyano Shiho who seems to have also shrunken.  
  
He’d really like to talk to her himself.  
  
“She’s thankful for what you’ve done,” Tōichi tells him. “And she hopes you’ll help protect her sister.”  
  
“I want to talk to her,” Conan whispers. He meets Tōichi’s gaze. “Can she leave... Haibara-san’s side?” He purses his lips, wondering how to refer to that girl. “Or is she a special case?”  
  
“Conan-kun?”  
  
He jumps at the sound of Mitsuhiko’s voice. It’s a wonder how he hadn’t noticed the younger boy walking in, head poking around the corner. Trying to appear calm, he turns off the water, barely noticing how _red_ his hands have become.  
  
“Ah, hi, Mitsuhiko.”  
  
“Um... Kobayashi-sensei sent me to check on you,” the freckled boy tells him. “She wanted to make sure you didn’t pass out or something. Are... you okay?” He scratches the back of his head, eyes scanning the bathroom as if to look for someone. “Is someone else in here? I thought I heard you talking to someone.”  
  
“I’m okay.” Conan likes to tell himself that a lot. “I was up late reading and skipped breakfast.” That’s not a lie. He really was up late reading and he really did miss breakfast in his rush to get to school since Ran has exams and went in at a much earlier time. “And I was just talking to myself.”  
  
Mitsuhiko doesn’t look convinced, but if he has any questions, he doesn’t ask them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’ve actually had this chapter ready for months now, but I haven’t uploaded it until today since I was still trying to figure out the whole situation.
> 
> So... Conan sees Akemi whenever he looks at Haibara. He kind of can’t just talk to Akemi since Haibara would hear. And he kind of just lives with this guilt about it. I’ll go more in depth with this as the series progresses. ^ ^ There’s going to be a very important installment in the future, but I don’t wish to spoil anything.


End file.
